RJ McHatton is an award-winning writer-director-producer of over 100 documentaries, and an author of three books of fiction. Inventive Productions is the leading producer of Custom Video Biographies and Corporate History DVDs. We are called the "Autobiography Company" because we specialize in creating historical documentaries where we help you tell your story in your own words.

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Monday, September 28, 2009

Joe Regan shows us the spoon he made from a tin can and shared with all the POWs

Joe Regan

It was a glorious day in the Northwest. I drove along the lake and the sky was perfect blue. I was there to pickup Joe and Kay Regan. My goal was to interview Joe for a video biography interview. Joe served as a B-17 belly gunner and his aircraft was shot down over Germany. Joe was captured by the Germans and became a POW of Stalag 7a with thousands of roommates. Joe told some incredible stories about his experiences over there. It was a very emotional time for both of us. Luckily Joe’s beautiful wife Kay was there to calm us down. Joe and Kay have been married 65 years. I feel blessed to have met Kay and Joe. They are most proud of raising five children and then another five foster kids, too. After the war Joe didn’t do much flying but he was able in recent years to fly in a B-17 a couple of times. Sometimes its real hard for Joe to think about those days as a POW. He remembers the hunger, the joy he realized when his POW camp was liberated, and the times he met Patton and Eisenhower. He also remembers the spoon he made out of a tin can, and how he shared that spoon with so many other POWs in the Stalag.